Recycled plastic particles6/16/2023 Science and Technology of Materials welcomes contributions in the form of original research papers, review articles and technical notes reporting advances on those fields, emphasizing new materials, new products and devices, and new technologies.įormerly known as Ciência & Tecnologia dos Materiais See more The scope of the journal covers a wide range of topics in materials science that are of interest to the SPM, encompassing electrochemistry, corrosion and protection of materials, extractive metallurgy and recycling, electronic and optoelectronic materials, biomaterials, forest materials, polymeric and composite materials, foundry, heat treatment and surface engineering, tribology, and fracture. Right now, to expect that chemical recycling will be a solution is simply an illusion.Science and Technology of Materials is the official journal of SPM, the Portuguese Society of Materials (Sociedade Portuguesa de Materiais), providing a forum for publishing peer-reviewed papers related to both fundamentals of materials science and technological application of engineering materials. “We need to make the whole recycling more feasible. There are so many different types and many of them are simply not recyclable,” Vahk says. “At the moment and in the long term, the best option we have is to focus our policies on limiting the types of polymers that are out in the market. Vahk adds that the chemical recycling hype should not divert the attention from the real solution to plastic pollution which is replacing single-use plastics, detoxifying and simplifying new plastics, and designing business models to make efficient use of plastics. The main effort is currently on reducing the use of plastic. We think this is what was missing in GAIA’s report."īefore better technologies will become effective, however, the paper claim that old mechanical recycling (made of melting and physical reshaping, among other steps) remains the best recycling option as it results in less toxins and a smaller carbon footprint. It has environmental benefits and we also see this technology being built out in the US and other parts of the world, Europe in particular. Commenting on the report, Keith Christman, managing director of plastic markets for the American Chemistry Council (ACC), told "One of the big advantage of chemical recycling is being able to recapture and re-use more plastic that you can with traditional mechanical recycling. The industry disagrees with GAIA’s findings. A Joint Research Center will start after the summer with a technical, economic and life cycle assessment of chemical recycling versus mechanical recycling and energy recovery of plastics. On the other hand, the Circular Economy Action Plan by the EU Commission says the it will support projects "exploring the potential of chemical recycling". The Circular Plastic Alliance aims at reaching 10 millions tonnes of recycled content on the EU market by 2025, the EU Single-Use Plastic Directive requires to integrate 25% recycled plastic (recycled content) by 2025 in PET bottles and 30% by 2030 in all types beverage bottles and the EU Plastic Strategy aims to make all plastic packaging recyclable or reusable by 2030. There are already a few legislative proposals trying to address the issue. “Market conditions don't favor the production of recycled resins or plastic.” “My concern about chemical recycling is that it's another end of pipe 'solution', instead we should address the plastic pollution upstream,” says Janek Vahk, who coordinates the Climate, Energy and Air Pollution Programme at the NGO Zero Waste Europe. Critics are concerned because they can't deal with mixed plastic polymers or black plastic and the current market conditions make it hard to compete with virgin plastic - all for a climate impact that is likely higher than producing plastics from scratch. “This will further increase the environmental health impacts on communities that are already subject to disproportionate, cumulative environmental burdens.”įurther issues arise in relation to the viability of these processes. “For economic and regulatory reasons, chemical recycling operations are mostly likely to be collocated with existing petrochemical facilities,” the briefing explained.
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